Overdose deaths continue at a relentless pace in B.C. Figures from the B-C Coroners Service say 128 people died of illicit-drug overdoses in September, up eight per cent from August and also a jump from the same month last year. The service says of the 11-hundred and 43 deaths so far this year, 80 per cent of them have been male. The opioid fentanyl was the leading cause of death, although the coroners’ service says cocaine and methamphetamine were also factors in deaths.